Little Chute, New London remain No. 1

Updated: Monday, 09 Jan 2012, 9:06 PM CST
Published : Monday, 09 Jan 2012, 9:02 PM CST

This past week, the top-ranked teams lived up to their ranking.

The Little Chute boys and New London girls basketball teams each made it through the first week of 2012 without loss, meaning each remains No. 1 in their respective basketball polls in the FOX 11 Top 11.

In the boys poll, Little Chute is 12-0 and is followed by fellow undefeateds Pulaski (10-0) and Luxemburg-Casco (11-0). Rounding out the top five are De Pere (8-1) and Sheboygan North (9-2).

Three Fox River Classic Conference teams (Pulaski, De Pere and North), are in the top five.

Meanwhile, Fox Valley Lutheran and Appleton West each exited the poll, and were replaced by Wrightstown (10-1) and Omro (8-1).

In the girls poll, New London, the defending Division 2 state champs, continues to roll. The Bulldogs, along with No. 2 Bay Port are the only perfect teams left in the poll.

That’s because Algoma, No. 3 last week, lost its first game last week at Kewaunee in a Packerland showdown. The Wolves dropped out of the top five, but rounding out the top five behind Bay Port are No. 3 Appleton East, No. 4 Sheboygan North and No. 5 Oshkosh Lourdes. Algoma is No. 6.

Meanwhile, three teams left the poll. Fond du Lac was No. 4 last week, but lost twice, leading to its exit. Also, Berlin and Xavier dropped out.

Replacing them in the poll were No. 8 Appleton North, No. 9 Kewaunee and No. 10 Fox Valley Lutheran.

North might be a team to keep an eye on. The Lightning shared the Fox Valley Association title last year and might do that again, if not win it outright.

North handed Fond du La c a 57-51 loss last week and now is one game behind Appleton East in the FVA. Those teams meet Friday at North, which is a team thinking it can win the FVA again.

“We’re getting the pieces there and we’re capable of making that run, definitely,” North senior Jennie Stage said.

One reason North is so dangerous is it has plenty of options on offense. While Stage scored a career-high 22 points against Fond du Lac, the Lightning has four players averaging between 7.6 points per game and 12 ppg.

“I think we’re very dangerous,” said Stage, who’s the team’s top scorer. “It’s so much easier on a defense when one person is scoring a lot, so if you have a lot of people, it makes it harder on the defense.”

Here are this week’s polls with each team’s leading scorer listed:

Boys
1. Little Chute (12-0): Turner Botz averaging 21.8 points per game? Last week: No. 1.
2. Pulaski (10-0): Cody Wichmann averaging 15.9 ppg. Last week: No. 2.
3. Luxemburg-Casco (11-0): Matt Adams averaging 15 ppg. Last week: No. 3.
4. De Pere (8-1): Jordan Poydras and Matt Vanden Bergh each averaging 15 ppg. Last week: No. 4.
5. Sheboygan North (9-2): Ethan Guske and Devin Yurk each averaging 15 ppg. Last week: No. 5.
6. Kaukauna (9-1): Jason Miller averaging 14 ppg. Last week: No. 6.
7. Bay Port (10-2): Ryan Tachick averaging 16.4 ppg. Last week: No. 7.
8. Wrightstown (10-1): Craig Nennig averaging 10.7 ppg. Last week: unranked.
9. Omro (8-1): Brandon Tyler averaging 14.8 ppg. Last week: unranked.
10. Brillion (7-2): Ryan Reinke averaging 13 ppg.. Last week: No. 9.
11. Valders (9-2): Drew Binversie averaging 19 ppg. Last week: No. 10.

-Dropped out: No. 11 Fox Valley Lutheran (8-3); 1-1 last week. No. 8 Appleton West (7-3); 1-1 last week.

3-pointers:

• 1. No. 1 Little Chute hosts Xavier on Friday in the GameTime Game of the Week.
• 2. No. 3 Luxemburg-Casco travels to No. 6 Kaukauna on Tuesday.
• 3. Botz averaging 28.7 points per game over his last three games.

Girls
1. New London (8-0): Tara Knapstein averaging 15.2 ppg. Last week: No. 1.
2. Bay Port (9-0): Chelsea Nooker averaging 13.2 ppg. Last week: No. 2.
3. Appleton East (8-1): Marissa Michalkiewicz. Last week: No. 6.
4. Sheboygan North (8-1): Lauren Salzbrenner averaging 13.6 ppg. No. 7.
5. Oshkosh Lourdes (9-1): Lexy Petermann averaging 13.9 ppg. Last week: No. 8.
6. Algoma (9-1): Lindsey Kirchman averaging 12.1 ppg. Last week: No. 3
7. Preble (6-2): Kenzie Perttu averaging 19.4 ppg. Last week: No. 11.
8. Appleton North (8-2): Jennie Stage averaging 12 ppg. Last week: unranked.
9. Kewaunee (8-2): Marissa Selner averaging 11.6 ppg. Last week: unranked.
10. FVL (7-1): Katie Doell averaging 11.2 ppg. Last week: unranked.
11. Kimberly (6-2): Kyra Vanden Heuvel averaging 9.9 ppg. Last week: No. 5.

-Dropped out: No. 10 Berlin (6-2); 1-1 last week. No. 9 Xavier (6-1); 1-1 last week. No. 4 Fond du Lac (7-3), 0-2 last week.

3-pointers

• 1. GameTime Game of the Week has No. 1 New London playing at Denmark.
• 2. There’s a big one in the Fox Valley Association where No. 8 Appleton North hosts No. 3 Appleton East on Friday.
• 3. In case you missed it, Appleton East beat Kimberly last week, 24-21.

doug.ritchay@wluk.com